Futurity Trophy Tips: Wimbledon To Swoop For Group 1

The final flat turf Group 1 of the British season is of course the Futurity Trophy for two year olds up at Doncaster, on what is likely to be soft ground. There looks to be plenty of interesting contenders this year, but Billy Grimshaw is all in on the market leader...

Watching the Royal Lodge when I had toyed with tipping up WIMBLEDON HAWKEYE but instead opting for Royal Playwright on price grounds, I knew from a long way out that I'd made the wrong call and that James Owen's colt was a class apart. Well, I will not be making the mistake of opposing today's favourite - or indeed the Acomb form behind The Lion In Winter - again and I think the 3/1 on offer for the market leader here is much more than fair.

The manner in which the Acomb panned out, with the two high profile expensive colts being split by Wimbledon Hawkeye, should have been enough of a warning to all that James Owen had a very useful tool on his hand and despite idling a tough in the Royal Lodge, it was impossible not to be impressed with the winner. Royal Playwright is a horse I think plenty of and he ran well for second, but the winner was away and gone in a matter of strides and always looked in control of the race. I'd be surprised if he doesn't take high rank amongst the three year old colts in 2025.

This race is deeper than the Royal Lodge was, as a Group 1 should be, and I am very much cautious of being uber confident particularly with the Ballydoyle improver Delacroix in the field. The team are seeking a ridiculous twelfth win in the race here and after Delacroix ground out a Group 3 win on soft at Newmarket a fortnight ago, it would be no surprise were he to improve again here on ground we know he likes.  

There are a couple of two race winners for big yards in here who are looking to take a marked step up in what they've displayed thus far in Anno Domini and Detain, with the first named for Godolphin looking more of a 'just does enough' type of horse while the Juddmonte runner has been particularly flashy in winning races he always should have won with aplomb, running out a seven length dominant winner at Kempton in a lowly all-weather race last time out.

If I had to pick between those two here on soft ground and turf, Anno Domini would get the vote as for all Detain certainly looks the more flashy, he is unproven and could well find this colts of this level taking him off his feet a bit particularly early on in the race. The horse I think will be the biggest issue for these lightly raced colts is of course the favourite and my pick Wimbledon Hawkeye, who will surely once again be prominent under James Doyle before hopefully putting the race to bed.

If Delacroix and Moore don't take the lead and try to turn this into a stamina sapping test, perhaps the pace angle is Golden Horn colt Seaplane for the Coles. He is a big old price in here for the potential pace angle and he did impress me in his seven furlong romp last time out when leading all the way on soft and in the end scooting away to win by over four lengths. I may well play him in a forecast to finish behind Wimbledon Hawkeye, but for the purposes of this column there's no need for greed and a simple win only tip on the favourite will suffice.